when i was growing up, my mom nearly always made dinner. i'm talking a main meat dish and side dishes cooked on the stove & placed on pot holders with real plates set at our designated seats & all 5 of us sitting at the table together. we almost always had dessert too, usually some type of pudding (chocolate, pistachio, tapioca). there were those rare occasions when we had something that was store bought, already prepared. occasionally we'd have t.v. dinners (which we actually got to eat on t.v. trays in front of the t.v.) or the boxed pizza mixes that came with dough & sauce. then there was my favorite: pot pies. to me, a pot pie is the absolute ultimate comfort food, hands down. (an aside: my mom would cleverly make different marks in the tops of the pot pies so we could tell what was chicken or beef or whatever. i always thought that was cool.) even these store bought dinners were always baked in the oven. we didn't get a microwave until i was in late middle school or early high school (and i actually decline to have one now). so when i want a pot pie, i want it baked. (marie collandar makes a super microwaveable pie though.) i've never baked a pot pie from scratch for a couple reasons. first, i'm not really a baker. to me, a pot pie is still a pie & i'm just not a maker of pies (that's my mama's forte). secondly, i wasn't sure how to get the wonderful sauce that pot pies have & i was a little too lazy to find out. now i know that it was silly to be lazy about it because the recipe i found & modified (with the help of my wonderful mother) is so darn easy. i should have tried this years ago!
i was looking through my campbell's cooking companion book & found a recipe for chicken pot pie. this one calls for a bisquick type topping that i wasn't too excited about. i remembered a chicken pot pie that i had a few months ago at ruby tuesday that had puff pastry on top & thought that would be a great idea. i also wanted a bottom crust like the pot pies you get at the store so i got a regular pre-made crust (hey, they were on sale!) at the grocery store as well.
my mom & her friend happened to be visiting last wednesday & thursday so my mom helped me make dinner. (and she took me to target & got me a waffle maker which will be making an appearance here in a day or two) i had 2 pie crusts & we ended up liking it so much that i made another pot pie for just john & i the next night as well. the first had a pie crust on the bottom & the puff pastry on top. from this one i learned that when you cut corners off a puff pastry sheet, you should not use them to make a cute design on top. the pastry underneath these pieces will not puff up & will stay mushy. lesson learned.
i wasn't 100% thrilled with how the pie crust on the bottom was a little soggy in the middle but it was pretty much the same as the crust in the bottom of, say, a pumpkin pie, and john really liked it. both pictures here are of the first attempt. the second one i made with no crust on bottom & a pie crust on top. i liked it this way better but i think using puff pastry again, with no bottom crust, would have been ideal. so, to summarize, the whole to bottom crust or not to bottom crust is going to be a personal preference thing. i liked having lots of crust but if you don't, do what ya feel. the vegetable choice(s) are totally up to you as well. the first time i used carrots, green beans & corn. the second time it was broccoli, cauliflower & carrots. both were excellent.
so, here's the recipe as i would make it again. this is so freakin' easy, it's almost embarrassing (and technically not from "scratch") but it is absolutely delicious & looks like you spent a long time on it.
chicken pot pie
1 can (10 3/4 oz) cream of potato soup 1/4 cup milk 1/8 tsp pepper 1 lb bag of frozen mixed veggies, thawed 2 cans (4.5 oz each) chunk chicken breast, drained (or a couple of cooked chicken breast cut up, if you like) 1 pie crust or puff pastry sheet
mixed the first 5 ingredients in a 9-inch pie plate. top with pie crust or puff pastry. i used a glass pan so i baked at 375 for about 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. if you use metal, crank the heat to about 400. my oven seems to be "slow" sometimes, so you might want to check it after about 35 minutes.
see how easy that is? it takes maybe 10 minutes longer than heating up a store bought pot pie & is SO much tastier, it's well worth the effort. i think i could eat this every day if given the chance. if there was a grade higher than A+, this pot pie would get it.
Hey Webmasters! New Photo Album Service Launched - Check it out!
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
bravenet.com